FtH: Descent
by UnknownUnseenUnheard
Summary: After Destiny Islands fall, Riku doesn't wake up alone on Hollow Bastion. Instead, he wakes up to a thief named Locke, a fallen General named Celes, and the realization that maybe, just maybe, he'll be able to fix things. But, Maleficent is still on the move, with plans of her own. Plans that involve Riku, and she'll go to any lengths to catch him
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I, am, like, not even gonna bother with chapter titles for this one. Don't wanna :P

Endgame was amazing (Except the last five or so minutes, they made no sense, but eh)

Andddd it got me into reading Marvel Comics in general, instead of just the Deadpool/Spider-Man run, and, let me just say: the Idiot Ball was the true main antagonist of the Civil War arc in the comics, more so than the movie

Anyways, rambles aside, enjoy

**Note**: Celes and Locke refer to the end of their world, which is a reference to another story I have called 'Godfall', which describes how the FFVI World falls to darkness. It's not required to get what's going on, but it adds more detail

Published: 6/1/2019

Warnings: None

Featured Character:

Riku

Maleficent

Supporting:

Celes Chere

Locke Cole

Maleficent's Villains Alliance

Antagonist: 

Maleficent's Villain Alliance

* * *

**Chapter 1**

You would think every living denizen of a world being swallowed by darkness would follow that world into darkness. You would be wrong.

Riku, for example, found himself stranded on a rock he would later learn was called 'Hollow Bastion', and would become instantly convinced it was named by some over emotional moron with a penchant for dramatism.

Elsewhere, Xemnas sneezed, because he definitely fit the latter part of that description.

Riku sat up with a groan. What in the hell had that been? Sitting up, the teenager looked around. Where… Waterfalls, as far as the eye could see, surrounded him. Except, of course, they weren't normal waterfalls because you could never have normal, could you?

They just had to be ascending up, didn't they?

"Where in the hell am I?" Riku muttered to himself.

"Psh. Beats me, kid," A voice spoke. Riku, alarmed, stood and spun, Soul Eater bursting into his hands in a swirl of shadows. Before him stood a silver haired man dressed in a light blue vest, who quickly lifted his hands in mock surrender. "Wow kid, easy. Not gonna hurt you. In the same boat you are." The man said.

"Which is?" Riku demanded, not dropping his stance.

"Got swept away into that giant ball of darkness. Destiny Islands, right?" the man asked.

If anything, Riku was more suspicious.

"Destiny Islands is a small place, and I have _never_ seen you around before." Riku said bluntly.

"Duh," the man rolled his eyes, "Me and my bae just had to show up when things were going south." The man said, a look of clear annoyance entering his amber eyes.

"Uh huh. Of course." Riku said, disbelief clear.

To this, the man shrugged.

"Eh. Believe what you want. We're stuck here for the time being and, since I'm supposed to be a responsible adult now, I can't just let you run off."

Riku snorted. He'd like to see this guy stop him.

The man offered him his hand.

"Locke Cole, at your service."

"Not interested," Riku snapped.

The sound of something wet and heavy hitting the ground alerted Riku, causing him to spin in surprise once more. A blond woman dressed in blues and yellows had slammed the biggest fish Riku had ever seen down onto the ground.

"If you want to run off, run off," the woman stated coldly.

"Celes, babe, we've talked about this," Locke whined.

"But, at least eat first?" Celes told Riku, kneeling down and filleting the fish before Riku could respond.

Riku considered for only a moment before his stomach growled at him. Loudly. Locke snorted, Celes shot him a small smile, and Riku groaned.

Screw it. He was a teenage boy. Quickest way to trap one is through the stomach, hands down.

* * *

Riku wasn't sure how, but he managed to go through half the damn fish all by himself. Considering the damn thing probably weighed as much as Sora did, he wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't barfed the damn thing up.

"First time using magic offensively in a fight?" Celes asked him with a grin as she bit into her own portion of the fish.

Riku blinked.

"How… Nevermind, you literally cooked the fish by waving your hand at it."

Cooked it pretty much instantly, which, honestly, Riku wasn't even sure how much heat someone would need for that. It was definitely enough to scorch the tile.

"So, what's your name, kiddo?" Locke asked.

Riku flicked a bone at him. Locke batted it away without even looking while Celes tsked at them.

"Don't call me 'kiddo'." Riku said.

"Sweetheart, doll, porcelain boy, Mini-Setzer, Kuja's secret love child, hell, Cecil's secret love child, Sephiroth Clone-"

"Don't call me any of those either!" Riku snapped. Kuja? Who in the hell would subject their child to the name Kuja?

Elsewhere, within Vincent Valentine, the ancient primordial entity known as 'Chaos' sneezed.

Locke smirked at him.

"Well, you refuse to give us your name, so I'll just have to assume you're a Sephiroth Remnant. I've never come across one, but man, Cloud bitched for hours. Never seen him so riled up."

"_Riku_," Riku hissed. "My name is Riku, thief."

Locke froze. Riku did a double take as the man's face first rapidly lost all color, become as pale as old oatmeal before rapidly reddening again, turning brighter than Kairi's hair.

"I am a _treasure hunter!"_ Locke emphasized. Riku didn't even blink at the anger.

"You look like a thief to me," Riku dismissed. "And your denial is telling."

Locke looked five seconds away from assaulting him, which was perfectly fine with Riku. A good fight would definitely relieve some of the tension he'd been feeling since landing on this rock.

Landing apart from Sora and Kairi.

"Careful, kid. Last time someone called Locke a thief, he responded by stealing their clothes right off of them." Celes chimed in.

Riku was not impressed. Raising a single eyebrow, Riku stared straight at Locke.

"Someone calls you a thief and your response is to prove them right to show your offense?"

Locke had the decency to look ashamed by that.

"To be fair, I was in the middle of a war zone and needed to blend in. Enemy uniform, here I come." Locke said.

"... What kind of moron soldier lets someone steal their uniform then doesn't report it?"

Locke shrugged.

"Beats me. They were her troops," Locke pointed at Celes.

Her troops? What was this, some star crossed romance between a thief and a general on opposite sides of a war?

"They never liked me," Celes informed. "I was the second Magitek Experiment, and after Kefka, all of them were just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for me to snap."

Magitek… Magitek… Where had Riku heard that word before? Pondering the word, Riku closes his eyes and phased out Celes and Locke.

"I knew I never liked Imperials for a reason."

"I'm an Imperial."

"You defected."

"I was cast out."

"Well, you what they say: one man's trash is another man's treasure."

"... did you just call me trash?"

"'Course not, babe. Your my diamond in the rough. I love, love, love, love, love, love, love you!"

"You're an idiot."

"I'm your idiot."

"I think I might be a morosexual…"

"What's that? A skin condition?"

"Oh god, you're so fucking stupid…"

"Miss Branford!" Riku interrupted, snapping his fingers in realization. Then, blinking, he took in the image in front of him. "Why… Why is your shirt half off."

Celes eeped, pulling said shirt back down and turning away while Locke laughed his ass off.

Riku did not want to know. He really did not want to know. And he seriously hoped these two did not have any children, because dear gods they'd end up traumatized so quickly it wasn't even funny.

Then, Celes froze, cool realization hitting her as she turned to stare at Riku.

"Miss Branford?" Celes repeated.

Riku nodded.

"Yeah, Miss Branford. She ran the local Orphanage, and taught a few of us a few tricks," Riku revealed.

Celes' eyes lit up.

"Now, that, kid? Believe it or not, that's the best news I've heard all week."

* * *

Elsewhere, Maleficent peered into her cauldron.

"The fact that you allowed three strangers to meander into your domain is… Questionable at best." Jafar snarked.

Maleficent didn't bother with a response. Instead, smiling, she looked up, eyes darting about her Villain's Council.

Skuld had her group. Maleficent had her own.

Jafar of Agrabah, Oogie Boogie of Halloween Town, Ursula of Atlantis, The Queen of Hearts of Wonderland, and Hades of Olympus. And, of course, that fool Pete, although at the moment Maleficent had him running an errand.

Skuld was no doubt aware of the allies Maleficent had gathered. Very little escaped that one's sight. Regardless, in the end, it would be Maleficent who would have the last laugh.

"Believe it or not, Jafar, this will prove quite useful to us," Maleficent smiled.

The Queen of Hearts shot Maleficent an amused look, practically patronizing.

"Will it? The boy, perhaps, will be easy to manipulate, but the other two? That woman oozes magical powers."

Maleficent merely smiled.

"Oh, that won't mean a thing. The rest of you forget: this is _my_ home territory," Maleficent declared, nevermind that she'd commandeered Hollow Bastion after the Heartless had driven the locals out, "and, I have just the thing to deal with them."

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait: The two of you know Miss Branford?" Riku asked incredulously, unable to keep the suspicion out of his voice. He couldn't help it. How utterly convenient, that the two people he'd landed with just turned out to know Sora's foster mom when Riku himself had never met them before.

Then again, Miss Branford had some odd… Friends. Shadow, and his perpetual habit of hiding and popping out randomly to fuck with people came to mind.

"We went on an adventure together. Heroes, trying to save the world!" Locke grinned at him.

"Did you win?" Riku asked, curious.

An uncomfortable silence fell.

"... I'll take that as a 'no'."

"We might have been able to take Kefka, but Kefka and the Heartless? The world was lost the second they showed up. It's a wonder we even managed to last a year." Locke grimaced, poking at the ground with a leftover bone. "Still, something must have happened to undo it, because here we are!" Locke grinned widely, splaying his arms out in pride.

Riku blinked.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean by 'you're here'?" Riku asked.

Locke looked up.

"Our world fell, just like Destiny Islands did."

"And you got cast out like like we did." Riku guessed.

Locke, however, shook his head. Riku frowned.

"We fell with it. We got swallowed into the dark." Celes chimed in.

Riku's head snapped up, alarmed. They had what?

"But, if that's the case…" Riku began. "How are you here?"

The couple shrugged.

"Beats me," Locke said. "Clearly, something undid the literal end of the world and brought it back, but we have no idea what."

Their world had fallen… And now, it was back. Gone, then back again. If their world could do that… Then…

"Exactly," Celes said, reading Riku's expression. "If we find out how our world was restored, we can look into restoring yours."

Riku looked up.

"And- and, if we do that… Everyone that was lost…"

Celes and Locke exchanged looks.

"... When the world came back, time went backwards. People who died of causes other than the Heartless came back during the Restoration, so, yeah, everyone who was lost should come back if we figure out how to undo it." Locke revealed.

Which Locke knew for a fact because he and Celes had chosen… Other options, rather than be converted into Heartless, but Riku did not need to know those details.

Riku sat back, stunned.

This… Woah. If Locke and Celes were telling the truth, and Riku really hoped that they were, then there was a chance. An actual chance to fix this mess. An actual chance to save everyone.

Riku had to assume he was the only one who made it off the islands. Well, him and these two, but Riku would have to go off of that assumption unless it was proven otherwise. Which meant… If Riku wanted Sora and Kairi back, he'd have to find a way to fix their world.

"Do you have any idea what triggered the Restoration?" Riku asked.

More looks.

"Before our world fell, we received a visitor. A young boy, wielding a Key-shaped sword that tried to help us stop the apocalypse," Celes said. "He told us that his weapon, the 'Keyblade', was the only thing in the universe capable of stopping the Heartless."

Riku blinked.

"... The world still fell." Riku pointed out bluntly.

Celes winced.

"Yes, well, Keyblades' are picky: they align themselves with the person with the strongest Heart. Unfortunately, Kefka managed to absorb the Heart of our world into himself, and, well…"

"A weapon that turns on its owner if it senses someone stronger is completely useless," Riku said flatly, completely unimpressed. "And, who is this Kefka guy, anyways? You keep mentioning him."

More looks.

Oh boy. Story time.


	2. The Master Shaper

A/N: Mezhan gets flashbacks. Kinda. I summarize pretty much any information that's really important about her

Note: No further Yuuzhan Vong are planned for this story. Their psycho heretical mind warper is the only one I need

Published: 6/7/2019

Warnings: None

Featured Character:

Maleficent

Mezhan Kwaad

Supporting:

Skuld

Antagonist: 

None

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**The Master Shaper**

As she marched down the cool stone steps of Villains Vale, Maleficent pondered her current situation.

Maleficent had dismissed her council. They were not required for this. No, it was best they return to their own worlds, to prepare for the coming War. War that she had recently herself accelerated.

The Fall of Destiny Islands was no small feat. Such an odd world, at the very edge of creation, yet filled with so much light. Had they not brought the Heartless directly to it, the Heartless themselves would never have bothered.

Maleficent knew this to be fact. The waters that touched the shores of Destiny Islands also touched the shores of the Dark Realm itself. Still, it had to be done.

Now that the Islands had fallen, the true Heir of the Keyblade would reveal themselves, and, once Maleficent had them in hand, her victory would be all but assured.

But, for now… Maleficent would use the resources at her hands. Resources meaning, of course, the interloper than had taken over her castle.

An interloper currently locked in meditation.

Skuld had taken over the Castle Chapel for this purpose, which irked Maleficent to no end when she had to relocate her meetings to another chamber.

Skuld sat there, with her back turned towards Maleficent, locked in her trance. Situated in the center of the room upon the elevated platform built there. Maleficent stood patiently, awaiting to be acknowledged.

Experience had taught Maleficent not to interrupt the Keyblade Master, particularly during these moments.

Maleficent did not have to wait long. Skuld rose, turning her head to peer over her shoulder. Maleficent tried not to squirm. Those golden eyes were unnerving.

Anytime Skuld turned that gaze on her, Maleficent felt as if she were being analyzed, a thousand times over. Every secret, every aspect of herself, picked apart and laid bare for the Keyblade Masters leisure.

"The boy is here then," Skuld said, turning fully to face Maleficent properly.

Maleficent hadn't even mentioned Riku yet, but of course, Skuld had seen it. There was little Skuld did not see.

That wasn't to say Skuld's prowess as a Seer weren't above being fooled, which was one of the primary reasons Maleficent was here.

She was here to gloat.

"Yes, yes, the boy is here," Maleficent nodded, "but, surprisingly, he is not alone."

Maleficent expected shock to splash across Skuld's face. She was severely disappointed when, instead, Skuld considered the words and nodded.

"There was a possibility that others would fall here with him, though the chance was rather low," Skuld admitted.

Maleficent raised an eyebrow.

"You are not surprised?"

Skuld shook her head. Maleficent had to give Skuld credit. Either Skuld had known all along that Riku would arrive accompanied by companions, or she had a hell of a poker face.

"What I see, Maleficent, is not what is but what can be. All possibilities, and, through them, I determined the most likely path," Skuld told her.

Maleficent said nothing. Said nothing, but felt a sharp pang of fear. If Skuld was telling the truth, then any plan made against her was likely to fall apart.

How does one strike down a Seer with seemingly no weak spots?

Maleficent, of course, knew this could not be the case. No Seer's sight was perfect. There had to be a blind spot somewhere. There had to be a factor she could exploit, that she could use.

All Maleficent had to do was find it.

Skuld smiled, arms reaching upwards as she stretched.

"There was a reason I chose to recruit Kwaad," Skuld spoke, stepping down from the platform before striding past Maleficent.

Maleficent could not help the look of surprise that crossed her face. Surprise, and disbelief.

"Kwaad? There is not a drop of magical energy within her, and you wish to set her on our invaders?" Maleficent asked incredulously.

Skuld turned to her.

"You underestimate that which you don't understand, Dark Fae. I assure you, if anyone can take out both Locke Cole and Celes Chere, it is Mezhan Kwaad."

Maleficent said nothing, didn't even blink at the names casually tossed out.

With Skuld, there was very little that didn't surprise Maleficent anymore.

* * *

Mezhan Kwaad was not from this world. She was not from this Galaxy. She wasn't even native to this Universe. Her own Universe had fallen prey long ago, and, as her species had once crossed the great divide that separated Galaxy from Galaxy, Mezhan had crossed the divide from one Universe to the next.

In her old life, Mezhan had been what her people had called a Master Shaper, had bent and created life to her will for the glory of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire.

An Empire that had not appreciated her. An Empire that had condemned her for her heresy, condemned her for thinking outside of the box, for seeking independence.

The Yuuzhan Vong had worshiped two things in life, pain and their gods. And Mezhan was far too wise to believe in the so called deities that the Yuuzhan Vong had assimilated to. The Yuno were nothing but a fallacy, constructed to keep the Yuuzhan Vong in check.

Religion served but one purpose: to cede the growth of scientific intelligence. Mezhan knew and recognized this, and it irked her that so many fell prey to the sway of belief, submitted themselves without a second thought. For that was what faith was.

Blind obedience.

Obedience Mezhan had never bothered with. There were no gods. There never had been. There was only existence, and existence was suffering.

Shaper protocols, passed down for generations, locked strictly in place. Deviation was death, and, while they had worked just fine when the Yuuzhan Vong had been on their own, their effectiveness lost strength the moment they'd crossed into a foreign Galaxy, one whose life strands rang on a different current than what they had been accustomed to.

Mezhan only did what was natural, and studied the new life strands, studied ways to shape them, to twist them to the Yuuzhan Vong cause. And, for that, she had been condemned.

Bah!

It mattered not.

The Yuuzhan Vong were no more. Mezhan was all that remained of a mighty Empire that had struck fear in the hearts of Sith and Jedi alike, an Empire so strong even the primordial entity known as the so called Force had feared their very existence.

The Yuuzhan Vong were gone and she, Mezhan Kwaad, a heretic, had survived where the rest of her kind had fallen. If that wasn't vindication, Mezhan didn't know what was.

Mezhan herself was currently rather busy. Busy perfecting her experiment. Busy perfecting an utter failure.

By this point, Tai Lung no longer even whimpered. Mezhan had been pleased when she had been presented a warrior plucked straight from the Underworld, one who's spiritual power had transcended even death.

She had been far less impressed when she'd learned Tai Lung had failed to overpower a single human, even with back up. The disgust had increased when she had learned the human in question had had his own spiritual power drained to a near minimum mere minutes before the invasion of Destiny Islands had begun.

"Perhaps," Mezhan mused out loud, "I should stop wasting my efforts in perfecting you, and instead seek out this 'Sabin Figaro'. No doubt he'd prove far more impressive than you have."

Tai Lung did not answer. Not that he could Mezhan had muzzled the animal almost as soon as she'd gained him. He did, however, glare daggers at her.

"You should be grateful, beast." Mezhan continued, unfettered. "I will make you great. I will make you powerful. I will make you feared."

Mezhan had made many a great things.

She would make a great many more.

Suddenly, the door to her laboratory opened of its own accord. Turning, Mezhan watched as Skuld strode into the room like she owned it. Which, technically, she did.

Mezhan huffed.

"How am I expected to Shape this lump of meat into something useful if I am being constantly interrupted?" Mezhan complained.

Skuld smiled. "My dear, I have a much better target for you. Much, much better."

Had Mezhan had eyebrows, she would have raised them. "Oh?" she asked, her interest peaked. "And what, pray tell, would it be?"

Skuld's smile only widened.

Mezhan, in her long life, had met many mad men, many crazed leaders, many insane beings that would stop at absolutely nothing to see their goals accomplished.

Skuld was no different.

This mad leader, however, was on her side, and Mezhan would follow her to the death.


End file.
